Braden told the Chronicle he was working out this offseason in hopes of a comeback but suffered a setback. An MRI showed his shoulder was too damaged to fix, he said.

"I wasn't in a position to repeat my delivery, to pitch with any intention," Braden told the newspaper. "That's OK, I understood the odds I was facing. You have to face your mortality one day, and I have been so blessed in this game. If I take 10 minutes to be hacked off about it, it would be nine minutes too long. You can't ask for more than I've been given, coming where my grandmother and I are coming from."

His biggest moment will be that perfect game on Mother's Day. Braden's mother, Jodie Atwood, died of cancer when he was a teenager but his grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, was in attendance for the perfecto.

"That game will always define the one solid day of work I had and the fact that I got to share it with my grandmother, only a few people appreciate the magnitude of that," Braden told the Chronicle. "That was living the dream."

Cash Kruth is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cashkruth. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.